A while back a friend gave me a bag of her son’s cast off clothing, with the idea that I would put anything worn or unusable into an archery target bag and then send the rest to the op shop. I sorted things into two piles, but in the archery bag pile were some wool jumpers which were either shrunk and felted or which had moth holes. I felt that the op shop wouldn’t want them, but I also couldn’t consign them to the target, so I tucked them away for future consideration.

Then the Make it Yourself March challenge on Instagram had a prompt of recycle and I suddenly had an urge to do something new. I also had a bit of a yen to make another Seamwork Astoria top (I’ve made too many to link to), and decided I could marry all these urges into a recycled Astoria.

My chosen item is a pure wool men’s sweater from Country Road, which is a pretty pale blue. It had these two moth holes in the front, one at the top back and another big one on the sleeve. I initially thought about some visible mending, but parked that idea while I worried about cutting out.

I folded the back and the front of the jumper in half and pinned my pattern pieces on. With a bit of finagling I got the front and back cut out.

Once I had the front cut out I began to look at those two moth holes at the front which were quite obvious and I really didn’t want to visibly mend them, so thought about how I could hide them. I looked at that collar and thought I could fashion a pocket out of part of it. I had already removed the button and quite liked the section that had the loop, so I cut a little pocket from it with rounded edges and blanket stitched it on with wool harvested from the jumper. I added a cute terrier dog button to finish it off.

Luckily the sleeves on the Astoria are completely symmetrical, so I just folded them in half and laid them on the jumper sleeves, just needing to cut a new sleeve head, and being able to utilise the cuffs.

I darned the sleeve hole, using the technique of teasing a bit of wool out of a scrap and darning away. Using the same wool makes the darn almost invisible, although my darning is not exactly exemplary so I can see this one if I look for it. I may sew a little heart over it in that thick rib. I’ll make that decision as I wear it.

I was making decisions on this jumper on the fly. I had a bit of fabric left with the bottom ribbed band attached, so I trimmed it up and overlocked it on to the bottom. At this point I was beginning to worry about the neck as I couldn’t see how I was going to finish it off.

In the end I cut a couple of scraps of spare knit and fashioned them into the neckband. They could probably be a smidge tighter and I might thread some elastic through to pull it in a bit.

The pocket finished up being quite high. I could probably drop it by 3cms but have decided that I quite like it where it is.

The seam where I attached the bottom band is much more visible in the photos than in real life. I thought about having it on top of the ribbing, but didn’t want the jumper to be quite as cropped. Another thing that I shall consider as I wear it!

The obligatory back view. 

I am rather pleased with my new jumper and even more pleased that I have saved it from an untimely end. It’s going to be warm (I nearly expired taking these photos) and will be a great addition to the casual end of my wardrobe.